Challenging but fun

Introduction
Michigan is a very demanding university if you are going into a science or math field. These areas demand hard work combined with high intelligence and are not suitbale for everyone. Social sciences and humanities are pretty easy and not too stressful. These would be suitable for anyone considering Michigan. I chose to come here mainly for the strong academic reputation and as a fan of Michigan sports. The sports is a good reason to come here, but shouldn't be the only reason. Students that aren't willing to put in four years of hard work should not come to Michigan.

Campus Life and Social Life
Parties at Michigan are unique to other schools in that the beer is always free. When visiting other schools it always surprises me when they ask for money for cups; that doesn't happen here. Sports are amazing, as mentioned above. Our student fans are very supportive in all our sports, but our alumni fans are probably the worst in the Big Ten, if not the country. They are never loud and request students/fans in front of them at games to sit down so that they can see.
Countless clubs exist on campus, so everyone is sure to find something they are interested in. Academic, athletic, social, ethnic and religious clubs all have some sort of representation among the students. Greek life is advertised as being huge at Michigan, but if you're not a part of it (like me), you don't even notice that it exists. People I know who are in it love it, and people who aren't love not being in it.
There are always parties or some other social events going on every night of every weekend. This is definitely not a "suitcase college." Advertisement
Academics
As a research institution, Michigan's professors value their own work more than teaching their students. The value of the degree is very high, which draws in top professors and top students, but the quality of teaching is actually quite poor. TA's (or GSI's as we call them) are usually either great or terrible. A large portion of mine have been foreign, and thus difficult to learn from due to a language barrier. I don't think any one department is better than any other in terms of quality of professors; each department has some great teachers and some bad ones. If you know before registering which ones are good and which are bad, you will perform much better in your classes.
Class sizes vary depending on the subject and level of the course. Upper level classes tend to be pretty small (20-30, maybe less) while 100 level intro courses may have 400 or more students in a lecture.

Student Body
Students at Michigan are from all over the country. About 50% are in-state, with a big percentage from Chicago and New York as well. It is a very diverse campus in terms of ethnicity as well as personality. It is impossible to broadly answer the question "what are the students into?" that would cover the whole student body. Students here are into everything collectively. Whatever it is you like, there are students here who like that as well.

In Closing...
It is very hot here in the summer and very cold in the winter. Keep that in mind if you are not from this region of the country. Also, if you plan on bringing a car to campus you'd better have a parking spot reserved, because there is absolutely no public parking available anywhere in this city. None. The campus and town are very walkable however, so a car is not needed. Housing is absurdly expensive but lacking in quality off-campus as well, so plan accordingly for that. Almost everyone lives off-campus by junior year, so it pretty much is accepted as the norm; it is something to consider though.